Yu-Gi-Oh ARC-V Ep 146: Cardgames in Space… Again

If I had to choose between office paperwork or watching this episode again, I would choose office paperwork (and I hate that stuff). I was not even five minutes into the episode when I had the immediate urge to skim through the whole thing. It was just so agonizing to watch. My heart broke when Yuuya started summoning the dragons on behalf of Yuuto, Yuugo and Yuuri. I was also quite annoyed to see how Yuuri all the sudden super melo and not crazy. It felt so out of character because we never got the chance to really see Yuuri all chilled out. In fact, when have we (besides the exception of Yuugo frustrating him). Yeah… I could go on about this all day but I won’t because you already heard me go over this issue a million times.

After this episode, I would say it’s safe to say the boys’ physical presence in this world is long gone. They have essential returned to how they were to begin with, all apart of one individual, Zarc. While Yuuya was given the privileged to be the dominant shell, he is certainly not the same Yuuya we first met in the beginning of the series. He now within his soul are the souls of his three of his counterparts. I suppose one could say this is Zarc’s ‘true’ reincarnation, in a sense that he is whole again, except this time: with a fresh start. However the only thing that hasn’t quite… err, development so to speak, is the evolution of his personality, which I think would be the transition from Yuuya to Zarc.

“Don’t be afraid!”

Honestly speaking, I firmly believe they could have crafted something incredible with the concept of Yuuya evolving into his true reincarnation as Zarc. I only believe this now after seeing Yuuya suddenly finds courage to lead his dragons, with a commanding line: “Don’t be afraid!”

Though I must confess, the first thing I thought was, “WTF, Yuuya’s personality just flipped 360′! Where the hell did that come from?”, but then it hit me and I thought, “He sounded so cool… Aw chucks, this could have been a really cool development. I probably wouldn’t have been as salty about Yuugo, Yuuri, and Yuuto’s being killed of in the physical world.”

I mean think about it: Had they had a different approach to how the story was written and the director and writing staff had their shit together of pacing the series properly, focusing on the main ARC-V characters and actually knew how they were going to get from Point A > Point B > Point C (because clearly they went waaaayyy off track at Point B), Yuuya’s transformation as an individualand as a duelist, it could have been SUPEEERRRR~ BADASS. While we will never get Zarc’s backstory as an individual, and see from his P.O.V how he lived his life to begin with, and how he descended into madness (besides the external instigation)… I always felt with the brief hint of how Zarc went from a nobody to the fearsome Supreme King, that during Zarc’s days of innocence, he was a lot like Yuuya in the ways he handled his loneliness and grief. That’s just the feeling I got from him, which is why I longed for his backstory so much.

tldr; Had they focused and highlighted Yuuya’s and the boys’ becoming Zarc once again far earlier on, it could have been SUPEEERRRR~ BADASS.

Worse Case Scenario: This was the concept the entire time.
And if it were, good lord they went waaaayyyy~ off track.
AKA: Failed Execution

Reason for Failure: They neglected the main characters and their development, choosing to put their focus and resources towards Cameo’s from the Past. Also the fail communication in regards of the Production or whatever the hell took place that created and influx of confusion and uncertainty about the direction the series is going.

Spoiler Alert: Reira absorbing Zarc should have NEVER happened.

To further explain this, let me throw some hypothetical examples. For instance, when Yuuya and Yuuto merged for the first time, instead making Yuuto disappear for like a dozen episodes and then finally xyz episodes later he finally gets to be present and talk again…

They could have, fused them the two of them together, immediately. Make it so Yuuto’s personality becomes a part of Yuuya’s rather than a separate entity. The ‘Beserk’ Episodes as we call it can still happen under this circumstances. This would also force both Yuuya and Yuuto to adapt to these changes as they begin their more ‘obvious’ process of becoming Zarc once again. I think this would also serve as a benefit to help fans like me, accept the boys tragic fate, as after watching this episode, it seems to me this was the intended fate for Yuugo, Yuuri and Yuuto.

#stillnotoverit

As for Yuzu’s and her fellow counterparts grim situation, well that’s an entirely different matter as they were forcefully fused together because of Leo’s selfish wishes, rather than having these dragons seek each other to find their master’s – but…. the dragons were also kind of forcing the boys to merge, THEN AGAIN~the dragons (probably) would have never sought out each other to become the Supreme King again had Leo never INVADED REALMS!!!

Ah **** it. It’s too damn late in the series to think about this shit.

Oh the irony when you think about Yuugo thinking Clear Wing Dragon was helping him find Rin the entire time when the dragon itself is actually afraid of Ray being revived.

God, it sounds so stupid now that I think about it.

Last thing I have to say are two points: Apparently Reira is in fact a girl, and if so I ****ing called it 100+ episodes ago, and two: I am not surprised (or impressed) that Jack is the one, yet again to get a double episode for his duel with Yuuya. Would honestly rather it to have been against Reiji… Ugh, I really hope there isn’t another round of this shit and go straight to fighting Zarc’s Demons (ugghhhhhhhhhhhh).

Also for the millionth time, I’m so eff’en done with Reira. Stop it. MAKE REIRA SMILE AGAIN IS NOT A THING, IT WILL NEVER BE A THING.

Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAIN Blurb! :D

So was scrolling through twitter this morning when I saw the news that Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAIN will be airing in May 2017, and they are changing its time-slot from Sundays to Wednesdays. This is good news and bad news.

Good news, my schedule won’t be nearly as packed as it is right now in May, so I will definitely be able to cover the first three to ten episodes of the series (varying on how much I like it).
Bad news, it’s on Wednesdays, which means an average of 1 – 2 days for Fansubs so the release would probably be Thursdays – Friday. That’s rough because Thursdays and Fridays often airs the shows I like and usually end up covering, so when I return (let’s face it, I’m gonna be back full time sooner than I anticipated (shortest indefinite hiatus EVER), i miss blogging full time so much ; A ;), I’m going to have to be extra selective about the shows I choose to cover on those days, ahahaha!

In the mean time in April, Yu-Gi-Oh! Labo (TV Special) will air on April 5th to promote VRAIN, I don’t know what it’s going to be about, but you can count on me to cover that one too.

Just so that I am clear: I WILL BE DOING A FIRST IMPRESSION OF YU-GI-OH! VRAIN :D

I find I enjoy YGO at it best when it’s dark. I feel like it gives it that edge the series needs, so I really hope it will have a dark dive to it. I sincerely hope that there will be better preparation, and writing quality from start to finish of VRAIN because ARC-V had so much potential, but fell flat on its face. :(

How this intervention should have gone:
Yuya: Wow, you guys held up an intervention to tell me to keep fighting and don’t hesitate in summoning your dragons.
Yuri, Yugo and Yuto: Not really.
Yuri: I really don’t care what happens to you but instead want this show to end already where my character gets redeemed. Truth be told I should have been the protagonist, we have the same voice and I have the strongest dragon out of the four of us.
Yugo: I don’t even know you yet you got to duel my all time idol 3 times. But if all this means I can get my body back and I can see Rin again, then whatever.
Yuto: In all honesty, I just want my body back and go back to dating Ruri. It was fun being your spirit animal and all but with all this additional space in your head as well as the fact I haven’t done anything in a long time its gotten pretty dull.
Yuri, Yugo and Yuto: In other words, quit being a whiny bitch you whiny bitch!!
Yuya: You guys are the best!!

Omake:
Yuri: I honestly can’t believe you two are cool with me despite the fact that I kidnapped both your girls and basically pulled a BVS in having you kill each other.
[spoiler]http://i.imgur.com/PgLYjNu.jpg?1[/spoiler]
Yugo and Yuto: Oh yeah.

Lastly, heads up, the new series will be on May instead of April. Honestly, I don’t mind the kinda month break in April.

I believe it was originally planned that the series would start on April but with issues involving ARC-V and probably needed time to prepare VRAINS, I guess they’re going with a prequel OVA of the series to get a hold on what it might be about. Surprising this maybe the first spinoff in a long time to not start in April. And to be fair, ARC-V arguably had numerous opportunities to get its act together but instead chose to waste them on pointless things that either didn’t amount to as much as they thought it would or just for the sake of stalling/pandering/laziness.

That’s what I’m hoping for, April to buy them a bit more time to prepare for the production properly. They simply cannot afford to make this kind of mistake again. The joke though is that had ARC-V been treated properly, it definitely could have used April as an extension to provide more time to flesh things out further.

What kind of scenario that you think would be fitting/should have for Yuri’s redemption after everything he had done? If I’m not mistaken, you’re also a Yuri fan, so I would like to know your opinion/wish if it’s okay with you.

I would at least say, give it time and have Yuri try his own atonement alone or at least try the final episode of Sasuke where he wonders around to find his own redemption rather than acting like all the crazy stuff him and Leo done were erased and never happened. Edo(who wasn’t even seen to do anything but was commander-in-chief), Tyler Sisters(again didn’t show what they did but explain in poor exposition) and Dennis(who was shown to green-lit an invasion and responsible for having Ruri kidnapped yet he committed suicide which was pointless) in the end wanted to make up. But with how there is literally two episodes left, yeah they are going to rush the hell out of this.

At least with Yugi against his enemies especially Malik/Maril it made sense because the former understood the latter from time and Malik had a pretty messed up life indirectly thanks to Atem. In the even you could say Malik understood his wrongdoings especially when he forfeited to Atem.(Something again, ARC-V shamefully ripped off)

Yuri on the other hand, his sympathy died the moment they made him go “Since no one wants to play with me because I’m too strong I’ll kill everyone in sight”. Yeah being a lonely kid sucks but when you’re this kind of degree insanity on your own freewill there’s no hope for anything. With that it makes Yuya even less reasonable and show even more stuff for the sake of the plot. Hell, based on a flashback he saw Yuzu and the other girls get killed off but him/nor Yuto never made a reaction to that but only Yuya made a reaction when his dad got carded and nothing else.

Yugi was always more kind/mature in comparison to Yuya who is basically a whiny teen who needs help from anyone to win his battles and never adapts whatsoever.

They could have used the 3 episodes after episode 140 to focus on Yuya and the boys or Zarc and Ray instead of filling it with the Battle Royale crap. I mean, what’s the point of having Pendulum Dimension being the only one to lose the memories while the other dimensions still retain them?

It’s still rushed and such, but I think if we have at least one or two episodes focusing on Yuri’s character redemption it’ll be better than suddenly appearing being all good like in this episode.

You know it’s bad when the manga portrays the relationship between Yuya and the counterparts a lot better in comparison to this and it literally took only the first 10 chapters of that. Here it’s literally for the sake of the plot which is even more irritating.

There are many things that frustrated me after watching this episode and reading the VRAINS news. The first and most of all is of course, Yuri. He just suddenly appeared being all encouraging and supportive and there’s no hostility whatsoever between him and his other counterparts despite everything he had done. Very frustrating to see one of my favourite characters got redeemed just like that without any explanation.

The only things I enjoyed from watching this episode are:

1. Another appearance of Zarc’s real face. (I thought his real face was only shown in episode 139 and afterwards we’ll never see him again).

2. Yuya summoning the four dragons and then said “don’t be afraid” to them was a very cool moment like you said, Eva.

And regarding Reira, I read a tumblr that translated an interview with the director that confirmed Reira is a boy. I’m not sure if this is true or not, though the source mostly accurate in this stuff. But if this is true, then this may mean that Reira before fighting Zarc is a boy, but after defeating and sealing him, he is reborn as a girl. Whichever it is, it’s going to take some times for me to get used calling Reira a girl from now on…

Many of my friends said that I should have stopped watching this to prevent further disappointment like I recently experienced, but after watching this from Episode 1 until now, I somehow couldn’t help but feel obliged to watch this series until the end. I wonder and worried, am I being too sentimental?

First, it’s not funny that my commentary always popped up late. But, after watching through 16 UEFA Champions League matches with some very thrilling games (Barcelona’s reversal of PSG with a 6-5 aggregate victory the best but also the most controversial) I’ll stomach that. Anyway, it’s time for Yuya vs ZA KINGU Round 3. Is Jack gonna piss on the poor Tomato as per usual? Let’s find out…

• Yes Yusho, apart from Sawatari and Dennis, there is another superior entertainer in this show than the Sakaki family, AND HIS NAME IS ZA KINGU JACK ATLAS!!!
• Geez, why is everyone so fixated on Yuya to summon Dark Rebellion?! It’s NOT that Yuya is scared of doing so because summoning Dark Rebellion at that time would’ve resulted in Shun’s victory.
• … And Jack being high and almighty as per usual, even though he got his ass kicked by Zarc before.
• Oh, so Yuya is ACTUALLY scared because he feared that he couldn’t Egao Reira with those Zarc-Dragons… But his most available options to entertain people are always the Action Card spams and the Egao speeches. Just ignore Jack’s words and do it your way Yuya, so that we can hate you more.
• So Reiji’s third phase of his ultimate keikaku (because both Dennis and Shun got jobbed) is to let Yuya and Jack have a cross-dimensional Riding Duel just to make Reira Egao and “purify” Zarc’s evil soul… Seriously, THIS is why people got mad at Arc V. WHY DO WE NEED A BABY’S SMILE TO CONCLUDE THIS SHOW?!! I just won’t place my bet on Reiji’s keikaku to work for once.
• Oh hey Crow, it’s you again. Are you gonna shill more Blackfeather support this late or not? >_>
• The 5D’s bias of Arc V remains strong that the writers aren’t even trying to hide it anymore.
• Yuya is still moping about his inability to make Reira Egao… FOR FUCK’S SAKE JUST GET OVER IT AND PLAY LIKE A PRO YOU DENSE TOMATO!! The obsession with the Edicts of Egao and the endless Action Card spams are the main reasons why Yuya is so hated in the first place.
• RED RESONATOR in Jack’s starting hand EVERY DAMN TIME… >_>
• SYNCHRO SHOKAN!! LEVEL 8!!! RED DEMON DRAGON SCARLIGHT!!!
• I bet that Trap is yet another protection card. Be it an old one or a brand new one, it’s too predictable.
• Still, NOTHING can top Yuya always having Timegazer, Stargazer & Odd-Eyes in his starting hand.
• GOD-FUCKING-DAMMIT!!! Yuya could’ve easily OTKed Jack should he just summoned Dark Rebellion, draining Scarlight’s ATK to 750 while boosting Dark Rebellion’s to 4750, dealing enough damage to defeat Jack, but once again I’ve been lured to have too much hope for this dense Tomato.
• On a side note: NO SURPRISE that Red Crystal saved Scarlight’s ass AGAIN. :p
• Jack isn’t so “satisfied” with the Tomato while ignoring that he should’ve got rekted easily had Yuya decided to not act stupid. Wait, “satisfied” he said? Why wasn’t Kiryu invited to this show?!
• Again, all this bashing of ZA KINGU towards this Egao Messiah Tomato is always fun to watch, but honestly Jack’s high-n-mighty attitude is actually starting to get on my nerves. It’s like he wants to get rekted by Zarc AGAIN so bad, that or he wants revenge for his defeats at the hands of Yuya and Zarc.
• Hahaha, Jack attempts to utilize Action Card bullshit and got cockblocked. On the “bright” side, it’s been too long since we last saw Stargazer negating Spells. On the other hand, Jack just did a massive asspull in this specific situation to spare his sorry ass. And people are quick to “praise” his asspulls.
• OH HELL TO THE DAMN FUCKING SHIVERS KID!!!! >:(
• Wish Yoko actually gave Yusho a good ass-spanking for abandoning her with no reason whatsoever.
• Oh gee, Jack is OBVIOUSLY going to destroy Yuya this turn, it’s not like he failed to win any of his duels when he brought out his DOUBLE-TUNING nuke “powerhouse”… :p
• SYNCHRO SHOKAN!!! LEVEL 10!!! RED DEMON DRAGON TYRANT!!!!
• YUTO, YUGO & YURI!!! WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN?!!
• God I’m just happy that MUH BOI YUGO is back in spirit! I really missed this precious Banana.
• Jesus, there is always room for the Entermates & Odd-Eyes archetypes to expand…
• No Jack, Yuya chose the RIGHT option. No way he’s gonna let Tyrant destroy his old-n-rusty Scales. Or you want to bury your VERY SOUL Scarlight yourself who always stubbornly refused to die?
• OH HEY LOOK! YET ANOTHER ORIGINAL ZARC FACE! Why did they censor his face in the first place?!! Wish they actually showed his original face when he was conducting those jobfest duels before. Too bad Zarc’s counterparts (minus Yuya) are far more badass and intriguing than himself.
• Jack, you provoked the DRAGONS too far and now you’ll pay for your sheer idiocy.
• XYZ SHOKAN!! R4NK!! DARK REBELLION XYZ DRAGON!!
• Baby Reira is starting to awake from his baby pouch…
• Wait WHAT?!! Entermate, Odd-Eyes and SYNCHRON in one Tuner?! That’s insane!!! O_O
• I LOVE how Yugo smiled like he’s excited to finally take on his long-time childhood idol. :D
• SYNCHRO SHOKAN!! LEVEL 7!! CLEAR WING SYNCHRO DRAGON!!!
• The greatest “evil” of all is reawakening, and the only solution to this looming “crisis” is to make baby Reira Egao… It’s not like that they can solve this non-existent “crisis” in ANY other way. -_-”
• FUSION SHOKAN!!! LEVEL 8!!! STARVE VENOM FUSION DRAGON!!!!
• Can someone shut Himika up?!! NO WAY I’m gonna buy this bitch’s “redemption”, EVER. >:(
• Yusho is cherishing this “entertaining” moment… Not that I can blame him, though. ;)
• Yuya is going to teach the dragons to man up for being pesky pussies that got so scared of that whore-waifu Ray who crashed the HITOTSU NI party before… WITH MUH EGAO!

NEXT EPISODE
ZA KINGU is gonna get raped to death by the four dragons for being such a high-n-mighty Dickass.

Your comment from last week got caught up in the spam system (at least it wasn’t eaten by wordpress!!!!), I hadn’t checked the website until yesterday to do the entry and I thought it was weird that your comment was missing, so I checked the spam and sure enough it was there. This tends to happen every now and then, more often than not to our regular commenters. So please know this was not intentional.

SEcond, sometimes a comment comes out late because it depends on who is on the site reviewing the comments in moderation. The writers are generally in charged of comments in regards of their own entries, but sometimes with permission (which I have given since I am too busy atm to check on a regular basis) our writers will approve them on another’s behalf. However if they are uncertain about the comment, it will sit there until the author of the post (ie: me) gets around to approve it because they don’t know what might be acceptable or not acceptable to approve based on the content of the comment.

Personally, i think the slippery slope started from the episode where they got sucked into the XYZ dimension the episode RIGHT AFTER Yuya saved Yuzu and they had that touching moment. I mean it was sort of good… but then the standards just kept slipping.

I’m literally just viewing the whole series as a tragedy. Not a bad series because the first 2/3 parts were quite good and the ending is horrible. I can’t bring myself to hate it, but i can’t bring myself to love it either. I’m in that state where i WANT to love it for its earlier parts but can’t forgive the latter half.
It’s certainly different from Zexal in which i hated the first part of it, but i loved Zexal 2 where shit got dark and they pulled surprising twists.

Arc-V is not my most hated series but it is what i shall call one of my tragic favourites. Favourite series that were good but went bad at the end.

I hope Vrains exceeds my expectations, I honestly think the name sounds dumb and Yusaku’s virtual form looks like a zexal ripoff (It wasn’t even cool then, what makes them think its cool now?).
I’m giving it a chance, but if the series is going to have a darker edge to it, i am probably going to be even more invested.

How is the Arc-V manga for you Eva? Personally i would LOVE if the manga was adapted into an ova or something. From when i read it, I could just SEE this as an anime! Maybe in the future they’ll do it and Arc-V will have the story it truly deserves!

Personally it started going downhill or at least raised concerns when 112 happen and then its credibility was destroyed thanks to episodes in the fusions arc which were the epitome of laziness, character shafting and favoritism. Then you got the plot reveal which took 126/127 episodes to explain when they could have explained it along time ago rather than spending more time with favoritism aka the year long Synchro arc which ended up being an afterthought. Then it constantly gotten poor ratings. Lastly, it was getting worse to the point where the staff themselves were concern of where the director/writer were going with the show since they aren’t being informed what to do at the time and had to make things as they go.

Overall, every series will have its flaws and problems but ARC-V’s are so unforgivable and ones that irritated me the most just because it shows just how far they would go to not even try.

In my opintion it started going down since episode 140, since before that Arc V had a good number of bad episode but just as many good episodes to balances it, it’s been quite a slippery slop for this show. An example being the entire fusion dimension arc:
Episode 113-114: Good episodes causing the show to go up.
Episode 115: A werid episode that cause the show to either remain the same or go down hill.
Episode 116-117 and 119: Some really good episodes dealing with Rin and Lulu(Ruri), the show was definitely uphill for those episodes.
However, the entire BB mini arc really brought the show down, luckily the great duels and character development seen in episodes 123 to 125 helped the show recover. But then episode 126 and 127 happened where Leo explain his beyond stupid plan, that really sent the show back down hill. Luckily episode 128 and 129 were good enough to help it recover, only for the poor way Yugo and Yuri’s duel was handled in episode 130 and 131 to bring the show back down. Then the show hit a high note with Yuri’s duels against Yusho and Yuya from episode 132 to 135. The show then remained stable through most of the Zarc fight(episode 136 to 139). Only for episodes 140 to 143 to be so bad, they dragged the show right into the ground. Luckily, with how good 144 and 145 where, the show managed to dig itself out of the ground, only for 146 to drag it back down.

It’s more love/hate with ARC-V in general(In short a Pendulum of its own). While I certainly disagree with the majority of the fusion arc I do understand that the kinds of ideas there were but with the execution as well as the large amounts of laziness and favoritism it practically ruins it and is very hard for the series as well as the original characters to standout on their own.

I would say definitely sometime within the Synchro Arc. Everything up till then was fairly solid and was the best of the series.
I hadn’t had time to read anything, let along watch anything other than YGO lmfao, but I did decide to wait a bit so I can read a bunch of chapters back to back rather than on a monthly basis (it is released on a monthly basis right? Eh either way it’s a win for me hahaha!)

I’m going into VRAIN with no expectations whatsoever, it’s a fresh start for me.

If it was sometime in Synchro arc, then I guess it had to be at 92 where the bait in switch happened. Yuri and Yugo summoned their dragons on the first turn triggering Hitosuni then Yuzu appread as well as bracelet magic happening pissing off the majority of people watching. But it was more likely the execution of it, all of it would have worked at in the least if what was shown in 126/127 be in 92 but in Zarc perspective and Yuya viewing them then once Yuzu appears Zarc becomes triggered than recognizes Yuzu as Ray. But instead all there was is screaming and the literal last appearance) of Barret(the only person Serena had a relationship with in Academia) aka written for the most dumbest of reasons. But you could also get the end of 99, immediately kick-starting Yuya and Yuzu’s relationship into a running gag rather than open up the possibilities of further developing them or interacting more as characters.

Yeah it was pretty early on in the Synchro Arc when I started getting worried about where the series was going, so it was probably around Ep 92. I will have to review my previous entries to know when it started to become a concern for me. Pretty much when down from there. :\

Okay, I’m going to be 100% honest this episode wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, that’s not to say it was good, but it was definitely better then that 3 episode battle royal, but no where near as good as the Dennis and Shay(Shun) episode. I really hate how Yuri is just good now, despite you know being the only counterpart to willingly allow Zarc to control him thus extremely aiding in his revival. Now I like the concept of the boys retaining who they are and talking to Yuya from inside his head, but it only really worked with Yuya and Yuto, now that Yugo and Yuri are here it’s really crowded. It’s especially hard with Yugo, now I’ve been a fan of the Yugioh series for years so I know how it works, people in Yugioh can become friends either in a short amount of time, or by having a duel to express there ideals and understand each other, so that’s why I argue Yuya is friends with people like Allen, Sayaka and BB despite the short time he spent with them, but I can’t say the same for Yugo because they have spent no time together accept in episode 36 and 91 but even then Yugo completely ignored Yuya because of his duels, while Yuya did the same in episode 91.
Now I can’t hate Arc V it’s still a good series, that is my 3rd favorite Yugioh series, but with how these last few episodes have gone since episode 140 I’m just very disappointing in Arc V.

Yeah. This episode is the very first time Yugo and Yuya ever talked with each other, properly for the first time. They have many chances to show these to interact, but they skipped it in favour of other characters.

I’m normally hesitant on giving out advice on how any show could be made “better”, since all art is largely subjective, but seeing as how Arc-V is nearly over, for the last two episodes I’ll be giving my thoughts on what I personally would have liked to have seen from perhaps the second half of the Synchro Arc onwards. Apologies in advance, this will probably be a bit long.

Synchro Arc: Ep 76-99

Some duels should have been one episode instead of two, like Yuya VS Shinji, Shun VS Crow and Yugo VS Serena. The Obelisk Force would actually invade the City properly, starting by secretly invading the home of a Tops family and carding them to use the house as their base of operations. After Sora warns Crow about Academia during his duel against Yuya, he encounters the Obelisk Force and they take him back to their base to help them in their search. Barret wants to retrieve the girls and leave as soon as possible, but suddenly Yuri arrives to take control of the operation, saying the Professor has given him full authority in this mission and he plans to tear the City apart to find the Bracelet Girls. Tension erupts between Yuri and Barrett and when Sora tries to diffuse the situation by saying they are all allies here, Yuri tells him that no one in Academia are allies, they are simply not enemies and that he won’t hesitate to card him or anyone else who gets in his way or betrays the school; adding that he has hunted down and carded traitors who ran away from Academia before and that the Professor fully sanctions these actions as his right-hand man. This turns Sora further against Academia and reminds him of Yuya’s words from episode 80, as he is unable to understand why Leo Akaba made someone like Yuri his right-hand when his ultimate goal is to create a utopia. After Roget sends Sergey to deal with Academia he sends Gallagher to take care of Reiji. Gallagher duels Reiji but is easily beaten and subdued, it is revealed that in addition to being the head of the Trash Facility; Gallagher is also in charge of all surveillance in the City which Reiji takes advantage of to record Academia’s invasion. From there things are pretty similar to the main show for a while: The Lancers escape from the Trash Facility, Shinji begins his rebellion, Yuya and Yuzu search for each other, Yugo searches for Yuri and Reira and Tsukikage act to protect Serena. While Shinji’s group faces off against Security, Crow arrives to warn them about Academia, but isn’t believed. Crow tries to tell them that this revolution will change nothing, it’ll just swap who’s in charge but keep the system itself intact. Shinji, Tony and Damon say that if Crow isn’t with them he’s against them, but just then Yuri arrives along with some O-Force members. Shinji mistakes Yuri for Yuya and challenges him to a duel to get his promised revenge, Yuri obliges, thirsty for battle and orders the O-Force to deal with everyone else. Yuri summons Starve Venom Fusion Dragon for the first time and OTK’s Shinji, Tony and Damon who realise too late that he’s not Yuya, after which they can only watch in horror as Academia card both Duel Chaser and Common alike. They beg to be spared the same fate, but Yuri sadistically asks why they’re shocked as the City runs on survival of the fittest before carding them. Crow is furious but outnumbered and can only flee, meeting up with Shun and Chojiro. The remaining Commons run away while the O-Force card any stragglers. Desperate to get a hold on the situation Roget orders all Security Forces to protect the Tops inside the Duel Stadium. Reiji leaves the Executive Council to rally the Lancers and drive Academia out of the City, but warns them that he plans to leave after that since the Council has proven to be unreliable allies. Reira, Tsukikage and Serena are cornered by Sora and three O-Force soldiers, after struggling with his conscience one last time Sora finally turns against Academia and joins the two Lancers in defeating the O-Force. Yuya ends up meeting Yugo outside the Executive Council building, causing Yuto to resonate within Yuya. The two Dragon Boys talk and eventually put the misunderstanding between the Synchro and Xyz counterparts to rest, they agree to search for Yuzu together until Yuri exits Council building, having carded everyone inside, including the Executive Council. Yugo challenges Yuri to a duel and as they summon their Dragons, it causes all four boys to Awaken and Yuya sees images seemingly from the future, with the Four Dimensional Dragons wrecking destruction. Yuzu arrives on the scene and her Bracelet teleports Yugo and Yuri away but not before Yuya sees her silhouette as a different girl. Yuya and Yuzu celebrate their reunion until Sergey arrives to capture her. At the same time Sora, Reira, Tsukikage and Serena are confronted by Barret and the O-Force. Gongenzaka and Shingo arrive to help, Gongenzaka faces Barrett while Shingo fights the O-Force alongside the others. Sergey defeats Yuya with his new Earthbound deck and captures Yuzu, flying her back to Roget whilst Barrett defeats Gongenzaka, but Shun, Crow and Chojiro arrive to stop him from being carded; outnumbered, Barrett is able to grab Serena and flee back to Academia. A battered Yuya is found by Reiji and the two set off to find the others. Roget still pits Sergey against Jack to both unseat him as King and to distract the Tops from the war going on in the City, Jack defeats Sergey, who gets killed by the Commons like before, only at the same time as all this, Sora is confronted by the rest of the Lancers, suspicious of his motives, especially Shun and Shingo. Tsukikage and Reira try to vouch for him, but Shun challenges him to a duel to decide if the Lancers will accept him or not. The duel ends in a DRAW and Shun relents but warns Sora that he will kill him if he is faking his defection. Yuya and Reiji meet up with the others and Reiji sends Sora and Tsukikage to save Yuzu from Roget who has declared martial law while Yuya and the others head to the Duel Stadium to stop the remaining advance of the O-Force and for Yuya to challenge Jack having received Sam’s message from him. The O-Force have entered the Stadium after they carded all the Duel Chasers guarding it along with the remains of Shinji’s rebellion. The Lancers intercept them and with Crow and Chojiro’s help defeat them in front of the Tops. At this moment Reiji uses the footage he has been filming from the cameras around the City to show the entire populace that the threat of Academia is real. He calls them out for their inhumane and classist society and warns them that unless Tops and Commons put their differences aside and work together, Academia will decimate them even easier than they did Heartland City in the Xyz Dimension. The people are horrified by the footage, but Yuya is disgusted that Reiji is using the carding of Shinji and the Council in such a way, saying that it’s the Miami Championship all over again and believing that Reiji deliberately delayed doing anything about it, hoping that this would happen. Reiji neither confirms nor denies this, simply saying that it’s the wakeup call the City needed and now this fear will galvanize them into changing for the better. Although Crow and Chojiro are similarly unimpressed by Reiji actions, they have no counter argument. Yuya nearly Awakens again but controls his anger and instead resolves to show Reiji that fear isn’t the only thing that can unite people, he challenges Jack to a duel and despite a rough start learns to speak using his own duelling instead of copying his father like in the show, whilst at the same time using Odd-Eyes and his weaker Entermate monsters to represent how the Commons and Tops and can work together to overcome Academia represented by Jack’s Tyrant. This time the people are genuinely entertained since it is a take on Shinji’s own philosophies and cheer for him as he defeats Jack. As the new King, Yuya decides to name Chojiro as the City’s governor to replace the corrupt Council as he understands the people and can work with Jack and Crow to bridge the gap between the Tops and Commons for good, Chojiro gladly accepts. Sora warns the others that Roget is trying to escape back to Academia with Yuzu, but Reiji defeats him like in the show and Roget is dragged into the space between dimensions when his teleporter malfunctions. Yuya, Yuzu, Gongenzaka, Shingo, Sora and Shun are also dragged into a wormhole and both end up in two separate groups in different parts of Heartland City in the Xyz Dimension: Yuya, Gongenzaka and Shingo in one group and Yuzu, Sora and Shun in another.

I wanted the show to emphasise the importance of camaraderie, shown by Sora getting a chance to see Academia’s true nature and to give him and Shun some closure. I also would have liked to see just how far Reiji could go in his Magnificent Bastardry to further emphasize the rivalry between him and Yuya, in how both of them were ultimately responsible for the City’s change. I would have liked the show to have given Gongenzaka a potential rival in Barrett and to slightly foreshadow Zarc and Ray a little earlier. Please let me know your thoughts on this and whether you think it would be better or worse if the show took this route. I’ll post my thoughts on Ep 100-125 on next weeks post.

I fully support your version of Synchro Dimension Arc! Personally, I think this is much better scenario than the original. If only the original was also like this. Sora’s defection and hostility against Shun, Yuri and Barrett, how the Tops and Commons are united, etc, everything are solved in more understandable and acceptable way.

You know, you can write this into a fan fiction. It’ll be a great one! :D

You have a lot good ideas on how to improve the Synchro Arc, while I don’t agree with all your ideas(like I feel that both the Crow vs Shay(Shun) duel and the Yugo vs Celina(Serena) duels needed to be 2 episodes, with both the character development and how skilled the duelists were), I’m still very impressed with your ideas.
In fact, you have inspired me, I was just going to talk about what I like and didn’t like about the last two episodes but with how the shows just kind of been going down hill, now I want to do something more fun, talking about how I would make the Arcs better. Just like you I have my own ideas on how to improve the series, in fact, I think many fans have there own ideas, and I would enjoy sharing mine with fellow fans of the show. Thank you.

At least being in space is actually justified this time, not like in 5D’s. That entire duel was just dumb, aside from the character interactions.
Yuri is mellow…wait…this explains it.
The boys haven’t been around because they’ve both been trying to kick the shizznit out of Yuri.
To be fair though, Yuri has no reason to be a jackass at the moment.

As for me, I enjoyed the episode (sod you all except Eva, Eva, you’re glorious). Don’t get me wrong, there were a few moments from frustration (Resonator I’ll admit, and Yuya pulling all these new monsters out without foreshadowing), but I was personally highly impressed by the quantity that it packed into its running time. Hopefully the next two episodes follow suit.

Now, as for when it went downhill…

Quality dropped a little for season 2, but the biggest drop was 112; the Xyz arc needed a little longer. I know I sound like a broken record, but Aster’s reaction was fine. The quick resolution of everything else was NOT. The overall ending, with a bit more setup, would have worked.

As for 92, I’m gonna say it again; you’re all a bunch of fools. What did you honestly expect to happen? That’s why I’m not as steamed about it as you lot.